Cumberland Partners Ltd Lowers Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Cumberland Partners Ltd decreased its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 34.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 27,997 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,850 shares during the period. Cumberland Partners Ltd’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $5,529,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of ABBV. Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new stake in AbbVie during the third quarter worth $1,211,000. Savvy Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 60.0% during the third quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 9,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,893,000 after purchasing an additional 3,595 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 2.4% during the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 29,831 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,891,000 after purchasing an additional 692 shares in the last quarter. Meridian Management Co. increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 5.9% during the third quarter. Meridian Management Co. now owns 1,328 shares of the company’s stock worth $262,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 1.0% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 4,119,235 shares of the company’s stock worth $813,467,000 after purchasing an additional 38,854 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ABBV has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price target on AbbVie from $215.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.41.

AbbVie Stock Performance

ABBV traded up $1.20 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $175.63. 1,873,011 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,373,087. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $194.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $180.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $310.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $136.30 and a 1-year high of $207.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.95 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.74%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 215.28%.

About AbbVie

AbbVie Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Humira, an injection for autoimmune and intestinal Behçet's diseases, and pyoderma gangrenosum; Skyrizi to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic disease, and Crohn's disease; Rinvoq to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, atopic dermatitis, axial spondyloarthropathy, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease; Imbruvica for the treatment of adult patients with blood cancers; Epkinly to treat lymphoma; Elahere to treat cancer; and Venclexta/Venclyxto to treat blood cancers.